The present invention relates to a liquid-crystalline dielectric which makes it possible to operate electro-optical displays at particularly low voltages.
For electro-optical display elements, the properties of nematic or nematic-cholesteric liquid-crystalline materials are being increasingly exploited in order to significantly vary their optical properties, such as light absorption, birefringence, reflectance or color under the influence of electric fields. The functioning of such display elements is based, for example, on the phenomena of dynamic scattering, the deformation of aligned phases, the Schadt-Helfrich effect in the twisted cell or the cholesteric-nematic phase transition.
For the industrial application of these effects in electronic components, liquid-crystalline dielectrics are required which must meet a large number of demands. Their chemical resistance to moisture, air and physical influences, such as heat, radiation in the infra-red, visible and ultraviolet range, and direct and alternating electric fields are of particular importance. Moreover, industrially usable liquid-crystalline dielectrics are required to have a liquid-crystalline mesophase in the temperature range of at least +10.degree. C. to +50.degree. C., preferably from 0.degree. C. to 60.degree. C., and a viscosity at room temperature which should be as low as possible and should preferably be not more than 70.multidot.10.sup.-3 Pa seconds. Finally, they must have no characteristic absorption in the range of visible light, i.e., they must be colorless.
Liquid-crystalline dielectrics for display elements, the functioning of which is based on the Schadt-Helfrich effect in the twisted cell, should additionally have as high a dielectric anisotropy (DKA) as possible in order to be able to manage with the lowest possible control voltages.
A number of liquid-crystalline compounds which have a positive DKA and which meet the stability requirements of dielectrics for electronic components and are also colorless are already known. These include, in particular, the p,p'-disubstituted biphenyl derivatives described in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,356,085 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,375) and the phenylcyclohexane derivatives according to German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,636,684 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,502). These two classes of liquid-crystalline base substances are employed very widely in the manufacture of electro-optical display devices, in particular for wrist watches and pocket calculators. In these applications, the lowest possible operating voltage is desirable since in this way the number of batteries required can be reduced or power-consuming voltage multipliers can be omitted.
The deformation of a liquid-crystalline dielectric becomes visible only above a threshold voltage which is independent of the layer thickness. The magnitude of this voltage depends in a known manner on the DKA and on the elasticity constants of the liquid-crystal material.